Friday, September 27, 2013

In an attempt to bring structure to my otherwise totally unstructured blog, I present to you....recipe Friday.

I love to cook. Really, I love to bake, and I like to cook. But, as it turns out, it's neither healthy nor socially acceptable to live on cookies and weight 873 pounds. So, I cook real, healthy food, and then I can bake cookies.

I don't make fancy things. But I also don't use cream of chicken soup in every recipe. It's somewhere in between. And then there are days, many, many days, when we eat chips and guacamole for dinner. And that's cool. As long as it's not more than like once (or..twice) per week.

And so....RECIPE FRIDAY!

Today I present to you a dessert. I know, it's not a 'healthy dinner' but it's really quite a delightful recipe. I made it for my friends up North last weekend (yes, we went up North, like real Minnesotans...but we stayed in a beautiful cabin instead of a tent or rustic cabin). My friends loved it. And it screams Fall.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, oats, salt and baking soda for 30 seconds. Add in 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar an mix until no clumps remain. Combine melted butter and vanilla and add to mixture, then stir with a spoon until evenly moistened. Gently press half of the mixture into a greased 8 by 8-inch baking dish (a 9 by 9-inch baking dish would be great to, just reduce the baking time slightly as needed) and bake in preheated oven 15 minutes.

Meanwhile in a mixing bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt. Add in egg, egg yolk and vanilla and stir until blended. Mix in pumpkin then milk. Pour mixture over baked cookie portion and return to oven to bake 15 minutes, then remove from oven and sprinkle remaining cookie crumb mixture over top while breaking the crumb into small bits. Transfer oven rack closer to the top-center (not directly beneath but a few levels below) and return to oven to bake about 20 - 25 minutes longer until golden on top and center only giggles slightly. Remove from oven and allow to cool 1 hour at room temperature, then transfer to refrigerator to cool 1 hour longer (or serve warm from the oven like a crumble with ice cream). Cut into squares and serve with sweetened whipped cream and a light dusting of cinnamon if desired.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

My friend Greta just posted this blog...and I'm doing my own version because it's a great idea.

Is my house going to sell? I don't think I want my house to sell. I think I'm ready to move. Maybe we should get a smaller house. We definitely don't have enough space, we need a bigger house. How is my child almost 1 year old? Should I make or buy a cake for her birthday? How will I ever get all of my work done? I need new Fall clothes. I want to wear hoodies to work. Should I quit my job and become a designer of work-appropriate-hoodies? I bought some new boots yesterday. I hope they're the right kind for this year. I don't want to dress like a mom. I hope my new boots are cool. I don't want to be the lady who wears mom-boots. How is my child going to stop drinking milk before naps and bed? She needs her milk. When she's 1, she can't have milk to bed. She needs her milk. My dogs need to stop barking. My daughter hates hats and winter is coming. We need to do hat practice. What is she going to be for Halloween? I think I should make her a costume. A funny costume. But she hates hats, so it needs to be a costume without a hat. What is a funny costume that doesn't involve a hat? I kind of want a new car. A bigger car. Strollers are huge and it takes up my whole car. I don't think I'm going to get a new car. First things first...house. Are we going to move?

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

1. I've been a horrible blogger. I'm really sorry. Time is nonexistent lately. And I don't want to be one of those people who always says, "I'm so busy". But for reals...work, baby, husband, oh my.

2. Exercise. Jeremy and I are doing this T25 exercise video series thing. It is hard. 25 minute daily workouts that are all called different things(Cardio Blast, Cardio 2.0, Fast cardio action), but which are essentially very similar. It goes by very fast and it's a fabulous workout and I found muscles in my legs that I didn't know existed. I think I popped a bone in my back. I know that's not a medical term, but that's what it feels like. It feels as if I grew a new bone that protrudes from my shoulder blade, and I broke it.
We are going to look like this guy soon....
Well...Jeremy is.

3. I turned 30 last week. And I'm cool with it. I still feel 18, so that is good. But I'm okay with being 30. It's not really that old, and I'm pretty happy with where my life is at 30 years old. I had a phenomenal birthday as planned by my rock star husband (who will never even hear that compliment because he doesn't read my blog)

4. MollMoll, Monkey Moo, Toots McGinty, McPheeny turned 10 months old last week. Which means she turns 1 year old in 2 months. Which means we eat cake, and sing happy birthday, and marvel at this hilarious, awesome, spicy little girl that we get to keep forever. A pretty awesome year. Okay, to be real honest, it has been 7 really great months and 3 pretty sucky ones. After she turned 3 months...we were on a roll. But those first 12 weeks, oh no. That was not a blast.

About Kara Leigh Frank

I'm just a girl in my 20's trying to find my way in the world and leave it a little better than when I came. I love to laugh, hopefully that will become abundantly clear if you read my blog. I also firmly believe that life should not be taken too seriously, you could say that's my motto. Minnesota girl - enjoying life - trying to figure it all out.

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What began as a wedding blog has evolved a bit. I began to write about my stumbles through wedding planning, and found that it had little to do with said topic. Rather, it was an outlet to describe some of the ridiculousness that tends to follow me. So, with that, and with the wedding behind us, I will charge on. If you will continue to read. If not, I will likely still charge on. Charging, writing, blogging, to myself. So read please!